Snail 99 million years old stunningly preserved in amber

An international team is investigating a remarkable juvenile snail trapped in amber. They estimate the creature to be about 99 million years old.

The shell is easy to see, but what’s truly remarkable are the preserved soft tissues, including the head, tentacle and eye spot.

“It is absolutely extraordinary for the fossil record to produce such stunning preservation, which is exceedingly rare for any fossil of this age, especially snails and many other animals,” said paleontologist Jeffrey Stilwell with Monash University in Australia.

The university calls the discovery “the first and oldest preserved soft tissue of a snail in the fossil record from the mid-Cretaceous of Myanmar.” The Cretaceous period is known for its iconic dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex.

The researchers described their findings in a paper for the journal Cretaceous Research.The scientists say the snail may be related to modern and fossil snails in the Cyclophoroidea family.

Stilwell says most snails would retract their delicate parts into their shells for protection when threatened. The researchers suggest a possible scenario where the resin flowed around the snail’s shell in a way that prevented it from hiding inside its shell.